HI....

I am new to GMing and already have problems witch matching my PCs witch worthy enemys. I am a bit scared throwing too many guys at them (after all I have only 3 players [scum / Tech-Priest/ and Guardsman] and only 1 of them is semi - confident with rules (scum)). Any tips how to make an interesting firefight ? 2nd problem is the team is a bit paranoid and ALLWAYS get some help from local Imperial guard regements / Arbiters/ Enforsers so they run with 5 NPCs and it boggs down the fights real good...almost like I am playing with myself... as the party hangs out behind something solid and watch NPCs slap each other. Thankfully the campain is almost done ....and I am planning to throw them into Tetra Facility =)

Oh and its there 1st mission for Inquistion and they are already askin in witch ordo they will be taken ( they battled vs demon as well as uncovered heritical plot. So both Ordo Hereticus and Malleus will be intersted in them .... but throwing them in 1 ordo will limit the range of Advantures they will take part of... any idea how I can jugle Campains with daemons , Xenos and traitors?

Kapelan said:

Why are you constantly letting them hide behind NPCs? They're acolytes not Inquisitors, Imperial institutions can and will say no to them. Beyond that, it's kind of hard to maintain a low profile with a platoon of IG around. If they want to go about their investigations that way do what heretic cells would naturally do: avoid them and strike from the shadows (terrorist tactics anyone?).

As far as providing a reasonable challenge, I wouldn't worry about it. They have fate points and they can always run away. Obviously don't throw a dozen Chaos Marines at them. Just make your best guess.

I am new to GMing and already have problems witch matching my PCs witch worthy enemys. I am a bit scared throwing too many guys at them (after all I have only 3 players [scum / Tech-Priest/ and Guardsman] and only 1 of them is semi - confident with rules (scum)). Any tips how to make an interesting firefight ? 2nd problem is the team is a bit paranoid and ALLWAYS get some help from local Imperial guard regements / Arbiters/ Enforsers so they run with 5 NPCs and it boggs down the fights real good...almost like I am playing with myself... as the party hangs out behind something solid and watch NPCs slap each other. Thankfully the campain is almost done ....and I am planning to throw them into Tetra Facility =)

That entirely depends on their mission. At a con, I've played with a GM who had his own little system for this kind of thing. See, the major problem with all these requisitions is that they're obvious while most inquisitorial missions require stealth - that's why the Imperial Inquisition's chief weapons are Fear and Surprise, after all. Well, Fear, Surprise and Ruthless Efficiency. Er...
Anyway: The more attention the acolytes draw to their actions, the larger the chance their opposition is going to notice them and react accordingly. This can range from posting more guards to hurrying their timetable with the world-ending rituals a little, sending a hit-squad to the PCs or even packing all their stuff up and relocating or lying low for a few months, leaving the acolytes to find their investigation come to a dead end.
Said other GM handled this via a new stat we'll call Heat. Whenever the acolytes do something that might draw attention to them, a few points get slapped onto this stat. At certain critical points, the GM tests on the Heat with a normal d% roll. If the roll fails, all is well - if it suceeds, the baddies have noticed the acolyte cell and will take actions.
Different actions incur different Heat penalties - asking a few pointed questions in a bar gives 1 or 2%, identifying yourself as Inquisition agents to requisition something will likely be in the region of 10%, taking out a secondary cultist hideout without some kind of cover-up might be worth 30,... and then there was the group who thought it prudent to use their gun-cutter to destroy another one after having talked to said other cutter's crew, thus leaving the crew half a minute to ask for help against "those bastards identifying themselves as Inquisition"... via nearly continent-wide vox cast on an unencrypted frequency. Seldom has an investigation been botched so thoroughly in such a short time.

Oh and its there 1st mission for Inquistion and they are already askin in witch ordo they will be taken ( they battled vs demon as well as uncovered heritical plot. So both Ordo Hereticus and Malleus will be intersted in them .... but throwing them in 1 ordo will limit the range of Advantures they will take part of... any idea how I can jugle Campains with daemons , Xenos and traitors?

Simple: Let them have an Inquisitor who doesn't bother overly much with the Ordos (there even are ordo-less Inquisitors) and have him refuse to hand over investigations that appear to head in a direction that isn't his standard fare. Ordo Hereticus is IMO perfect for that as they're investigating "cults" of all kinds - a few of which may turn out to have Xeno or Daemon backing which would normally be Xenos/Malleus territory, but it's not like you can let them fester while searching for the next proper Inquisitor to pass them off to.

Kapelan said:

Several of your other questions have been covered by other posters (and Cifer, thanks for sharing the idea of a Heat Trait! I am so stealing that one!), I'll tackle the issue of 5 or more NPCs bogging down combat.

My PCs have utilized reinforcements and troops a LOT throughout Dark Heresy and to good effect. However, you shouldn't let your self get bogged down in the minuta of it all. All of those incredibly specific rules and dice rolls are for the PCs and players benefit. Most players have a problem with you arbitrarily rolling a set of dice, looking up at them, and informing them that their character is dead. They need more chances, options, specifics, and, most of all, control of their characters fate (to a degree). The same is not true of NPCs. The fallowing is the way I handle mass combat with multiple NPCs on each side (thousands once, but that was Rogue Trader...):

I only make a single opposed roll (one side against the other) per round (or per hour, per day, or what ever seems appropriate to the situation, the numbers involved, and how engaged in the fight the PCs are). The opposed roll is either WS vs WS, BS vs BS, or WS vs BS depending on what the predominate style of combat that particular side is engaged in.

Each side receives a +10 to their opposed roll for each question below that I can answer "yes" to (and sometimes for other more unique circumstances):

1. Is this side physically tougher then the other side?
2. Can this side dish out more damage then the other side?
3. Is this side better equipped for the fight at hand then the other side?
4. Is this side Frightening to the other side?
5. Dose this side outnumber the other side by at least 2 to 1?
6. Dose the terrain favor this side over the other?
7. Is this side fighting for a higher ideal or cause?

Once I have the bonuses for each side figured out, I make the opposed roll and compare the results.

• If both rolls fail, then each side takes a number of casualties equal to their DoF (Degree of Failure)
• If one side wins and the other losses, the loosing side takes a number of casualties equal to their DoF + the winning side's DoS (Degree of Success)
• If both sides win, then the side with the least DoS takes casualties equal to the difference between it's DoS and the side with the higher DoS.

When I say causality, it's not necessarily a death, it could be a critical wounding, a routing of forces, or anything else that prevents those men from fighting.

I then describe what the PCs see of the events and try to give them something important to do in all the chaos, be it making a Command check to rally routed forces, Medica to block save some of the casualties, Scholastic Lore (Tachta Imperialis) to give their side a bonus DoS per DoS of the check as they shout out combat formations over the vox-link, etc.

Remember, you're telling a story about the PCs, not the NPCs. The camera needs to stay on them and the camera needs to always record exciting and interesting things. If it's not exciting, interesting, or story worthy, then you need to just get on with things asap. Finally, and above all else, you should not play with yourself in front of your friends -no one wants to see that. ;-p

I wouldn't roll for each NPC individually either, Graver's method sounds pretty excellent actually.

The key things to keep in mind for maintaining a good level of antagonist is to keep the weapon, armour and talent levels comparable to the PC's and reduce it if you are employing large numbers. there are also some things that we just kill characters dead. Snipers and full atuo man stoppers quickly come to mind...

Also remember that the PC's have fate points, so you can accidently reduce one to paste and they they get a do over.

Just watch a few episodes of Star Trek, and see what happens to the no-name crewmembers in the red shirts that accompany the main cast on the away missions

Let them die spectacularly without all that dice-rolling. If the PCs aren't going in the front line, then they won't be able to detect and avoid the land mines that the poor NPCs will trip. Or an ambush (they were calling attention to themselves after all) with some Rocket Launchers see their little platoon decimated. To make it fair, you can even have them take out a lot of enemy forces on their way down, leaving just the PCs and a healthy remaining core of opposition.